Today's Catch

Imagine you are a California sea lion – one of about 1,200 swimming around on the Columbia River. You’d need 32 lbs. of salmon a day just to stay healthy enough to keep catching fish. If you’re... Full story

This seems to have been the sentiment for years among those elected to represent you in the City of Seattle and the State of Washington. Finally, someone has come right out and said it. Seattle City... Full story

In late 2014 Seattle-based Fisherman’s Finest announced an exciting new project. The company had ordered what would be the first trawler built in the US since 1989. Designed by a Norwegian firm,... Full story

It’s that time of year when many of you transition from one fishery to the next. For many it will be salmon, for others, tuna, rockfish, etc. My nephew, Dan Platt passed on crab this season opting to devote time to his latest venture, Noyo Harbor... Full story

We have already covered in previous columns the sequence of blunders and misrepresentations by the State of Washington and Cooke Aquaculture following the net pen collapse at Cypress Island that disgorged 260,000 farmed Atlantic salmon into the ferti... Full story

We complain about our regulations and enforcement officials, usually with good reason, but as tight as it is to make a living fishing on the West Coast, it's tougher elsewhere. In North Korea, food... Full story

A local Seattle fisherman recently shared his opinion with us, and we were surprised to hear some of his observations. He told us that trawling can be a successful and responsible method of fishing,... Full story

While the State of Washington claims there was no measurable or lasting damage from a recent hazardous material spill (see Fish Farm Faces Lawsuit, page 26 of this issue), evidence to the contrary is... Full story

We have been very good this year – we hope you’ve been watching. In Bristol Bay, we used more ice and mechanical refrigeration to produce a higher quality fish, which brought a higher price from... Full story

The collapse of a Cooke Aquaculture net pen in Puget Sound in late August released hundreds of thousands of farmed Atlantic salmon into the Salish Sea at the peak of wild salmon migration. To add... Full story

An appalling lack of effective state oversight, together with slipshod maintenance by foreign owners, led to the release of tens of thousands of predatory Atlantic salmon from net pens in the... Full story

BREAKING NEWS Following the release into Puget Sound of as many as 187,000 farm-raised Atlantic salmon from a farm located in the Cypress Island Aquatic Reserve, Cooke Aquaculture is working with... Full story

At press time the Alaska Department of Transportation, armed with a federal permit to proceed, had completed a survey to determine the route of least environmental impact for an emergency medical grou... Full story

In early March, President Trump released his proposed federal budget, which, as could be expected, was not “business as usual.” Among the many cuts proposed by the President was a reduction in... Full story

This column is being written following a delicious Washington Troll Salmon lunch of marbled chinook at Seattle’s Lark restaurant. The lunch, sponsored by Washington’s Makah tribe and the Coastal Trollers Association, is a yearly effort to... Full story

Earlier this year, when President Trump announced the addition of $54 billion in added Defense Department spending for the Navy, Air Force, Army and Marine Corps, the US Coast Guard was notable in... Full story

In late December, a group of 51 Washington State legislators, 36 in the House and 15 in the Senate, signed a pair of identical letters to Bradley Smith the Chairman of the Washington Fish & Wildlife... Full story

Earlier this year, when President Trump announced the addition of $54 billion in added Defense Department spending for the Navy, Air Force, Army and Marine Corps, the US Coast Guard was notable in... Full story

Earlier this year, when President Trump announced the addition of $54 billion in added Defense Department spending for the Navy, Air Force, Army and Marine Corps, the US Coast Guard was notable in... Full story

We received quite a bit of feedback, all of it positive, to our coverage of the January West Coast crab tie-up. Crabbers and other fishermen are having a tough time on the West Coast, and the... Full story

In a popular trilogy of young-adult fiction novels that were turned into an equally popular movie series, a dystopian future America is split into districts, each of which supplies a particular commod... Full story

This is the phrase the kids today use to express sympathy while at the same time relief that whatever is happening to you isn’t happening to them. In this case, the West Coast fishing fleet outside... Full story

COMMENT PERIOD EXTENDED TO DECEMBER 23! In 2014 the State of Washington Department of Ecology (DOE) hatched a scheme to petition the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to create a no-discharge... Full story

In early October the City of Bellingham, Washington sponsored the inaugural Bellingham SeaFeast to celebrate Bellingham’s seafood industry and the city’s working waterfront. The festival is the invention of Debbie Granger, a local volunteer and... Full story

What kind of governor wants to ruin your business? Well, West Coast governors, apparently. In California, Governor Jerry Brown (D) and California’s large corporate agribusinesses have proposed build... Full story